Nothing I Could Do
by Deana
Summary: A much-needed conversation between Steve and Danno, as a tag to episode 23.


Nothing I Could Do  
>A Hawaii Five-0 story<br>By Deana

Hi everyone! I've been an author on this site for years, and am LOVING the new Hawaii Five-0! I loved the original and used to write it, (those stories aren't on this site anymore...that was 10 years ago!) and I've been itching to write a 5-0 story for the new show! The new episode begged for a tag, so here's what I came up with! I hope you like it! :)

Tag to episode 23

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_*cough cough*_

One minute, Steve McGarrett was dozing in his chair, and the next minute he was out of it like a shot. He burst through his door and over to Danny's office before he even had a chance to blink.

"Danny?" he said, bursting in.

Danny Williams looked up, seeming surprised at his partner's sudden appearance. He coughed again, obviously trying to hold it in. "What?"

Steve blinked, now fully awake. In his half-asleep mind, hearing Danny coughing had brought him back to the terrifying moment of Danny's collapse after being exposed to the Sarin, and he'd reacted before coming back to the present. "Uh," he said, trying to appear nonchalant. He realized that there was no way to get out of it, so he asked, "Are you okay?"

At that, Danny smiled. "What's this," he said. "Is the stoic and unemotional SuperSEAL worried about little ol' _me?_"

Steve frowned. "Of course I'm worried, Danny." He nearly sputtered, almost at a loss for words. He'd never been one to openly show his feelings, and sometimes genuinely didn't know how to express them.

Danny looked away with a nod, knowing that he'd literally come minutes away from death.

"Well?" Steve said.

"Well what?"

"You didn't answer me."

"Oh," said Danny. "I'm fine."

Steve was frowning. "You're pale."

"Well what do you expect, I almost died yesterday."

Steve studied him for a minute. "Do you still feel like you have the 'worst hangover'?"

"No."

Steve put on the I-Know-You're-Lying face.

"Fine, my head is still trying to explode, _slightly_."

Steve shook his head, and looked at his watch. He looked outside the office, seeing that the others had left for the day. "Let's get out of here."

"Yeah," Danny said. "Chin and Kono yelled their goodbyes, but it appeared that you were fast asleep in your chair."

Steve made what Danny called PunkFace. "No I wasn't."

Danny rolled his eyes. "Whatever." He stood up, but coughed again.

Steve immediately reached out to grab his arms. "Hey," he said, alarmed.

Danny made an exasperated sound. "I said I'm okay, Steve, are you gonna have a panic attack every time I cough now?"

Steve blinked, but let go of him. "What did the doctors say?"

Danny sat on the corner of his desk with a shrug. "Sarin paralyzes the lungs, which is why I couldn't breathe. It's normal to cough for a few days, they said."

Steve nodded. "Okay. Any other effects? Why did you come here after being released from the hospital? Shouldn't you take time off to recover?"

"I told you I'm fine," Danny replied. "The drugs they gave me to counteract the Sarin worked, see?" He spread out his arms to display his very-much-alive self.

Steve said nothing.

Danny's face turned serious, for once. "Wow, you were really affected by this."

Steve made an incredulous face. "Of course I was, Danny, you nearly suffocated right in front of me."

Danny opened his mouth to say something to the effect of, 'didn't you see that stuff all the time as a SuperSEAL', but didn't think that sarcasm was appropriate at the moment.

"Of course I saw stuff like that before," Steve said, startling Danny that he'd known what he was thinking. "But as a SEAL, it was all part of the operation, part of the mission…"

"…with everything done by the book," Danny interrupted.

"Right," said Steve. "If someone was wounded, we dealt with it the way we were trained to. I know what to do with a stab wound, or a GSW, or a concussion…" he trailed off.

Danny said nothing, realizing what Steve was getting at.

Steve shook his head and looked at the ceiling. "But _that_…I didn't know what to do. There was _nothing_ that I could do."

"You had no control over the situation," Danny said.

"No, none at all. You were fine one minute, and sitting on the ground wheezing the next, from an unknown cause." Steve's voice turned desperate. "Despite all my SEAL training, all I could do was watch." He shook his head and turned around.

Danny sighed. "Steve."

Steve lowered his head.

"Steve," Danny repeated.

He turned around.

"I can't imagine how you felt…I was too busy panicking while trying to breathe," Danny said, trying to sound funny. "But look, I survived…you're sure not talking to a ghost, here."

One corner of Steve's mouth lifted, but he still looked troubled.

"Come on, worrying like this isn't like you," Danny continued. "Your might have a brain hemorrhage from the effort, or something."

Steve smiled a little more, knowing that Danny was trying to do what Danny did best.

Danny smiled back. "You know, I appreciate what you _were_ able to do…picking up Grace from school, bringing her to the hospital to see me…somehow managing to be there every time I woke up…how did you do _that_, anyway?"

Steve grinned, that time. "SuperSEAL," he said, pointing to himself.

"So he finally admits it!" Danny said, with a laugh. It predictably turned into a cough.

Steve took his arm once more.

Danny coughed a little harder than he had when Steve had burst into his office, and seemed a little out of breath when it was over. "Let's go, I'm starving," he said, in an attempt to downplay it.

Steve nodded. "Okay. I'm paying." He didn't let go of Danny's arm as they walked out of the office.

Danny smiled. "You are? Well at least _something_ good came out of this!"

THE END


End file.
